In the 1970s, a wide variety of mineral resources were discovered. Analysis
by the United States Geological Survey and extensive researches revealed the
existence of a number of minerals and unexploited oil reserves in the north
of Afghanistan of economic importance. The most important discovery was that
of natural gas, with large reserves near Sheberghan in Jowzjan province, near
the Turkmen border, about 75 miles west of Mazar-e Sharif.

The US Department of Energy estimates the gas reserves in Turkmenistan are
the fifth largest in the world and Kazakhstan is soon expected to become one
of the world's largest oil producers. The wider region, around the Caspian
Sea, holds more oil and gas than either the United States or the North Sea.
But despite these potential riches, the Central Asian republics remain locked
in economic and infrastructural dependence on Russia: the legacy of 70 years
of Soviet rule. Moscow's attempts to perpetuate that dependence, the republics'
efforts to escape it and Washington's eagerness to assist them, have created
a decade-long 'New Great Game' in Central Asia. Afghanistan is an essential
part of the jigsaw puzzle because it provides part of the land route for a pipeline
to the Indian Ocean.

USSR's interests

The Soviets endeavored to export some of the country's resources to the
USSR. In the 1970s, the Soviets had estimated Afghanistan's proven and probable
natural gas reserves at up to 5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). Afghan natural gas
production reached 275 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) in the mid-1970s.
However, due to declining reserves from producing fields, output gradually fell
to about 220 Mmcf/d by 1980. At that time, the Jorquduq field was brought online
and was expected to boost Afghan natural gas output to 385 Mmcf/d by the early
1980s.

From this point, in the 1980s, USSR decided to build a 180km pipeline that
would export natural gaz across the Amu Darya into the country. The natural
gas production increased to 240 Mmcf/d and 97 percent was exported to the USSR
via the pipeline. Ongoing hostilities, however, severely hampered this effort
and finally cut off the natural gas export. By the mid-1990s there was little
mineral or oil and gas extraction. However, sabotage of infrastructure by the
anti-Soviet mujahedin fighters limited the country's total production to 290
Mmcf/d, an output level that was held fairly steady until the Soviet withdrawal
in 1989. After the Soviet pullout and subsequent Afghan civil war, roughly 31
producing wells at Sheberghan area fields were shut in pending the restart of
natural gas sales to the former Soviet Union.

The oil chase

Ever since the fall of the former Soviet Union ten years ago, Exxon, Mobil,
Chevron and the other big oil monopolies have been eyeing on the vast oil and
gas wealth around the Caspian Sea, just north of Afghanistan. This regions
oil reserves may reach more than 60 billion barrels, enough to service Europes
oil needs for years. Some estimates are as high as 200 billion barrels. The
Caspian Sea reserves are 10 percent of the worlds known supply, worth
about $5 trillion at todays prices.

Russia and German companies had been trying to establish a pipeline from
the Caspian Sea through Eastern Europe, but U.S. bombing of Yugoslavia blocked
this plan. Russia, however, also brokered a treaty with Iran for a pipeline
route. China also began negotiating to build oil and gas pipelines from Kazakhstan.
In January 2001, oil industry journals lamented that any chance the U.S. had
of cementing alliances in the region seemed doomed. They noted, however, that
the incoming Bush administration, heavy in oil and related interests, would
likely try to reverse this trend.

In February 1998, Unocal Corporation testified to the House Committee on Internal
Relations Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific that the Taliban government
in Afghanistan is an obstacle to having an oil pipeline from the Caspian
region to the Indian Ocean , that is, through Afghanistan. In 1997, Unocal even
tried to woo the Taliban with billions of dollars to support the proposed pipeline
through their country.

According to the book that has just appeared in Paris, in November, entitled
Bin Laden, "La Verite Interdite" (Bin Laden the Forbidden Truth) the
Bush Administration was under high pressure from the United States oil companies.
The Bush Administration held extensive talks with the Taliban regime
from February to August 2001 with the aim of securing control over the vast
oil and gas reserves in Central Asia through the construction of an oil
pipeline from the rich oil fields in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan,
to Afghanistan and Pakistan and onto the Indian Ocean. "The oil and gas
reserves of Central Asia have been controlled by Russia. The Bush government
wanted to change all that...this rationale of energy security changed into a
military one". At one moment during the negotiations, US representatives
told the Taliban, "either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or
we bury you under a carpet of bombs".
The authors, Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquié, with long experience
in intelligence analysis allege that if the Taliban had facilitated the construction
of the pipeline and US control over Central Asian oil and gas reserves, the
latter would have paved the way for economic assistance to, and political recognition
of, the Taliban.(Jean-Charles Brisard, 33 years was advisor an American. He directs a company
of financial investigations today. Guillaume Dasquié, 35 years, is a
journalist, specialist in geopolitics.)

Besides oil and natural gas, Afghanistan also is estimated to have 73 million
tons of coal reserves, most of which is located in the region between Herat
and Badashkan in the northern part of the country. Many coal deposits have been
found in the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, in Karkar and Eshposhteh, in
Baghlan province, and Fort Sarkari, in Balkh province. Although Afghanistan
produced over 100,000 short tons of coal annually as late as the early 1990s,
as of 1999, the country was producing only around 1,000 short tons.